It could have been a catastrophe, right enough. Belle & Sebastian meet Trevor Horn: Tigermilk meets โ€œTwo Tribesโ€? Chalk meets cheese, more like.

But in a year that began with Horn frogmarching nymph-lesbian duo Tatu to No 1, is it so strange he should end it in cahoots with a band as similarly outside the pop norm as these fey lairds of indie? Ought we really be surprised that Belle And Sebastian, sad sensitive observers of โ€œThe Loneliness Of A Middle Distance Runnerโ€, would find a kindred spirit in the man responsible for The Bugglesโ€™ โ€˜faded film starโ€™ tearjerker โ€œElstreeโ€? Of course not.

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Hornโ€™s influence is surprisingly subtle, merely emphasising the bandโ€™s playful idiosyncrasies (working titles for this album included โ€œWankerโ€™s Forestโ€, โ€œNazi Sinatraโ€ and โ€œThe Six Guns Of Henry The Arseโ€). Hence its dozen tracks, one of which shares its name with former Catchphrase host โ€œRoy Walkerโ€, heave with mischievous appropriation. โ€œWrapped Up In Booksโ€ shamelessly pulls the rug from under Sir Cliffโ€™s โ€œIn The Countryโ€, while distinct outlines of Jackie Leeโ€™s โ€œRupertโ€, Costello, Magazine and Adam And The Ants are elsewhere?so no wonder another working title was โ€œIf Youโ€™re Going To Be Hung For Stealing A Horse You Might As Well Shag Itโ€. Lo and behold, they do just that on the outstanding โ€œIโ€™m A Cuckooโ€, embezzling the dual guitar harmonics of โ€œThe Boys Are Back In Townโ€ and then namedropping Thin Lizzy in the cheekiest rhyming couplet of the new millennium so far.

Such larceny would be that and nothing more if it werenโ€™t for the songwriting chops of Stuart Murdoch and Stevie Jackson. From โ€œLord Anthonyโ€, the saga of a bullied posh kid with transvestite yearnings, to laments for relationships soured by the humdrum couch-potatoism of cheap vino and I Love The โ€™90s-type telly, itโ€™s by far the strongest collection of songs the band have ever assembled. If they entered the ring with Horn as talented greenhorns, by the final fade of the epic new romantic finale โ€œStay Looseโ€, they exit as accomplished pop epicures. A catastrophe in name only.